BUILDING COMMUNITY ON THE FRONTIER: the Mennonite contribution to shaping Ontario the Waterloo settlement to 1861 Mennonite by Elizabeth Bloomfield Source Counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania of History Migrants to Waterloo Township, 1800-1829

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MENNONITE HISTORICAL Montgomery SOCIETY OF ONTARIO

Philadelphia

Four main phases of migration have been detected, with four in ten pioneers coming from Lancaster County, and three in tenfrom Montgomery County'. Compiledfrom PIONEER database of information aboutfounding families, heads of which migrated to Waterloo Township before 1830 and resided there at least 10 years. Sources VOLUME XV of information included Ezra Eby Biographical history, family histories, and the 1831 assessment rolls. NUMBER 2 Mennonites who migrated to Upper The Waterloo settlement became the Canada at the very beginning of the nine- staging point for migration to surrounding OCTOBER 1997 teenth century established a distinctive townships (notably Woolwich and settlement in the area that became Wilmot) and the core of the Mennonites' Waterloo Township. This essay surveys Waterloo District Conference. It was also the Mennonite presence in the region up the heart of the area constituted as ISSN 1192-5515 to 1861, a year for which we have good Waterloo County in 1852 for administra- information and which represents peak tive and judicial purposes . The Waterloo numbers of rural settlers .' settlements continued to have the largest The Mennonite pioneers established concentration in the province of people themselves on the far inland frontier of who counted themselves as Mennonite . Upper Canada - beyond the edge of colo- In what ways did the founding nial white settlement in 1800 and on its Mennonite families shape the develop- margins for at least 30 years. Mennonites, ment of the frontier community? The word as the term is used here, loosely include all "community" is so frequently used that it the families and individuals of generally can mean almost anything or nothing . Anabaptist origin who migrated from or Here I use the phrase "building communi- by way of southeast Pennsylvania to ty" in three senses to form a structure for Block 2 of the Grand River Tract in the this essay. All are significant in under- period between 1800 and 1830 . If not standing the Mennonite experience in the already related at the time of migration, Waterloo settlement. most would become connected by kinship Community, in its most general sense, or marriage during the first two or three means all the people who live in a place or generations . The River Brethren settlement and who are usually linked by (Dunkards or Tunkers) are included, as their everyday business contacts and needs well as people of Mennonite origin who for shared services . Building such a com- later changed their religion . munity involves laying the foundations of the basic economy, society and polity, as well as the infrastructure of services shared by all people in a locality or region. In these processes, the first permanent set- Land Assessed tlers, such as the Mennonite families who came to Waterloo Township before 1830, in 1831 would have a larger role than those who Pioneers from come later. Pennsylvania Community can also have a narrower Otherorigins and more specific meaning. It may be used Land not assessed of a group of people united by a sense of identity or historical consciousness, but living within a larger society that does not share those traits. Building this kind of community, and protecting its distinctive culture or faith against weakening tenden- cies, involves strategies to foster the group's shared ethos and mores, and to set boundaries against the values and beliefs of other groups or the anomie of the larger one in four acres . From the 1830s, as people of other Almost two-thirds of the township was assessed to some owner or occupier, and nearly, society of this assessed area for occupied. Pioneerfamilies from Pennsylvania accountedfor 70 per cent of Waterloo backgrounds and faiths settled in the town- Township's population and owned 87 per- cent of the assessed land area. Compiledfrom PIONEER database ship, Mennonites and the other religious and 1831 asse .ssmcia rolls. groups tended to stress the differences that separated them from their neighbours, at Webers, Brubachers and Schneiders - con- that actual property boundaries soon least in part of their lives. tinued to be the leading local landowners. departed from the order of original sur- Community-building can also have a Their block purchase and role as founding veys, though large farms continued to be more creative meaning of efforts by peo- pioneers ensured the survival of a substan- more typical than in nearby townships. ple to share each other's burdens, even tial enclave of German-speaking settlers in Waterloo Township was settled mainly across sociocultural boundaries. Such a distinctive society and culture.' by those already experienced in pioneering efforts, also illustrated in early Waterloo The method of allocating German on the North American frontier. The Township history, may be marked by Company Tract lots left enduring traces in Mennonite settlers, whose families had evolving co-operation among individuals the landscape, cadastre and road network - been in Pennsylvania for up to three gen- and families of different backgrounds, described in about 1880 as "a system of erations, were able to bring stock, seeds, through an active and intentional process the most regular irregularity ."' The large tools and farming methods appropriate to that may involve tension and conflict lots were of odd shapes, compared with a forested land in a similar continental cli- between the ideal and the practical . the rectangular patterns of nearby town- mate. They knew how to read the vegeta- ships, and there were no formal road tion cover and to prefer land that was Building Basic Economy and Services allowances. Lot sizes and shapes and road heavily stocked with hardwoods - oak, alignments evolved informally. Extended maple, hickory, beech and black walnut - Above all, the Mennonites built and families of Mennonites settled close to one as evidence of richer soils . Immigration by shaped community in the Waterloo area by another for support in meeting the chal- whole families, including adolescents and their critical mass: they migrated and set- lenges of pioneer life and to share in reli- young adults, gave many Pennsylvania tled in sufficient numbers in the founding gious practices. As in southeastern pioneers an advantage over single males period to have a lasting impact on the Pennsylvania, "farm buildings were locat- from other backgrounds who tried to hack region's landscape, economy and society. ed primarily with reference to economy in farms out of the bush. A good many Without the solid investment in 1803 by hauling crops to the barn and convenient Mennonites also brought capital with the group of interrelated families from access to water, hence they might be some which they could buy larger properties Lancaster County in what became called distance from the road."' The patterns of and some labour to help clear their lands the German Company Tract (GCT), the dispersion were irregular, in contrast to the As Mennonites were the first to settle Mennonite presence in Waterloo County regularly surveyed townships more typical in the township, their farming practices might be a mere footnote to local history. of Upper Canada. The coarse mesh of the and patterns of settlement influenced those Descendants of the German Company original large lots, which tended to be sub- of later arrivals. Their solid success by the shareholders -especially the Erbs, Ebys, divided among family members, meant early 1830s was praised by Adam

Ontario Mennonite History is published semi-annually by the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario. Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G6, and distributed to all members of the Society. It is distributed free of charge to public libraries and school libraries in Ontario, upon request. Editor: Brent Bauman Editorial Committee: Linda Huebert Hecht, Lorraine Roth, Herbert Enns, Sam Steiner, Marlene Epp Financial assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture is gratefully acknowledged. Inquiries, articles, book notices or news items should be directed to the Editor, Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario c/o Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G6 TEL. (519) 885-0220, FAX (519) 885-0014 Page 35

Fergusson in his efforts to attract Scottish threshing of feed grains which were then wardens, poundkeepers, assessors, clerks immigrants to nearby Nichol Township . stored in the feed bins of the granary locat- or collectors in the rudimentary system He was "delighted with the cultivation" ed in the forebay . The forebay or "over- of township government before 1850 . and noted that "springs and brooks were to shoot," the second-floor extension project- However, the highest local offices - be seen in abundance ." A typical farm he ing over the front stable wall for 4 to 20 justices of the peace or members of the described as "from 200 to 300 acres, laid feet, is the most distinctive feature . Access Legislative Assembly - were usually filled out into regular fields, and not a stump to to the upper level of the barn was provided by non-Mennonites . John Erb and George be seen. The ploughing was capital, the by banking the barn - building it into a Clemens were notable exceptions as jus- crops most luxuriant, and the cattle, horses hillside or constructing a gentle ramp that tices of the peace."' etc . of a superior stamp, with handsome allowed farm machines and wagons to be Founding Mennonites, settling in suffi- houses, barns etc and orchards promising driven up to the back of the barn with their cient numbers on a compact block of terri- rich returns . Waterloo satisfied me above loads of hay, straw and feed grains .' tory, created a viable settlement of their all that 1 had yet seen of the capability of Though most Mennonites took up land own families. By their success, they also Canada to become a fruitful and fine coun- for farming, some brought experience as attracted other settlers - mainly German- try."' By the 1840s, the township's farmers millers, blacksmiths, ploughmakers or car- speaking - who brought complementary were regarded as highly successful, "dis- penters, with skills that were vital to the resources but also the potential, eventually, tinguished by their industry and thrift; by economic survival of the community . All to dilute the Mennonite character of the their large houses, with harness, ox yokes, the township's water-powered mills in Waterloo settlement . Most of the non- and hoes, forks, and other implements operation until the mid-1830s were begun Mennonite settlers came without money hung on pegs under the flaring eaves; by and owned by Mennonite entrepreneurs . and worked as day labourers for the large their bank barns.. .; and by their carefully Most significant were those of John Erb Mennonite landowners, gradually putting cleared fields and their first-rate hus- at what became Preston (1806), Abraham aside some funds to buy smallholdings, or bandry ."' Erb at what became Waterloo (1808), giving up and moving on to new frontiers . Waterloo Mennonites contributed most Philip Bleam at what became German Smaller numbers of non-Mennonites to the development of farming in Upper Mills (1812), and Jacob S. Shoemaker brought education, craft skills or capital . Canada by introducing the bank barn . at Glasgow Mills which became part of The first large group of landless labour- Their Pennsylvania and Swiss back- Bridgeport (1829) . Early millers did more ers were German-speaking Catholics who grounds were reflected in the styles and than grind grain, saw wood or card wool : emigrated from Alsace and Baden between the 1820s the early functions of their farm buildings, especial- they were also merchants, stocking the late and 1850s. They formed a distinctive and last- ly the barns, but also the Mennonite pioneer farmer's essential supplies and ing cluster on the "back lots" in the north- Georgian farmhouses built of logs, stone providing him with credit ." east corner of the township that was called or brick . Typically the first simple log barn Mennonite landowners contributed "Rotenburg" or "Little Germany" by the was replaced after about ten years by a to developing the community infrastruc- mid-1830s . According to oral tradition, the bank (Swisser or Sweitzer) barn. Larger, ture of roads, fords and bridges in the Alsatian Catholics who had "scanty more substantial and more versatile than founding period . They provided materials means" and were "quite inexperienced in other pioneer farm structures in North and labour to improve informal roadways bush life," worked at first as labourers for America, the two-level barn could house as "statute roads," at least 70 of which members of the Jacob Schneider clan in various livestock in the lower-level stable, were approved between 1819 and 1840 . the Upper Block east of the Grand River. with space on the second floor for storage They served as overseers of highways These well-established Mennonite farmers of hay, straw and implements, and for the (or pathmasters), fenceviewers, town were "uniformly kind, neighborly and hospitable" in giving "valuable advice, employment and credit ." As they gained Landowners by experience and the funds to buy or rent Ethnic Origin, 1861 smallholdings, the Alsatian Catholics gradually built up a cohesive community in what became New Germany (now Maryhill) . Smaller clusters of Catholics settled in the northwest corner and around the hamlet of Williamsburg .'' Landless immigrants from other German states, especially Lutherans arriv- ing between the 1820s and the 1850s, combined day labour for established farm- % . IL ers with cultivating gardens or keeping a Pennsylvania few animals and chickens on their rented German StatestAlsace smallholdings . They began a lasting tradi-

BritainI Ireland tion of "one horse farmers" in contrast to the large and well-established Mennonite Other Urbanized 1 farm properties . Some also practised crafts or trades - as tailors, shoemakers, black- smiths, carpenters, potters, storekeepers or After 60 years of migration and .settlement, Waterloo Township was a mosaic of communities of various ethnic innkeepers . backgrounds and religions. Though only one in four township households was Mennonite, these were over- whelmingly rural and landowners of Pennsylvania Mennonite origin still owned well over half of the town- Smaller numbers of more prosperous ship's land and were the most prosperous and solidly established group. Compiledfrom 1861 manuscript cen- immigrants also arrived in the 1820s and sus, 1861 assessment rolls, Tremaine s map and PIONEER database offounding settlers. 1830s, attracted by the solid Mennonite Page 36 settlement and use of the German lan- grounds and faiths. But they also nurtured local congregation . guage. Non-Mennonite arrivals who had distinctive elements in their own religion The early organization of churches as already lived elsewhere in North America and culture, especially as the numbers of social units was affected by the law that brought enough capital to set up enterpris- non-Mennonites increased." only clergy of an Established Church es on their arrival - such as Friedrich Pennsylvania pioneers came from at could solemnize valid marriages or autho- Gaukel and Otto Klotz who established least three different Anabaptist back- rize the building of places of worship. the leading hotels in Berlin and Preston, grounds. There were Tunkers or River Mennonites, like Baptists or Methodists, Jacob Beck and Jacob Hespeler who start- Brethren as well as Mennonites from the were labelled "heretics", "fanatics", and ed foundries, and Heinrich Wilhelm two inter-District Mennonite conferences "dissenters" and "nonconformists." One Peterson who founded Canada's first in Pennsylvania which followed different practical effect of the restrictions was to German-language newspaper in Berlin in religious and cultural practices, even pub- encourage "union" or "free" buildings that 1835. Some of these, with more education lishing separate hymnals. People from served congregations of any denomination and command of the English language Montgomery and Bucks Counties and were sometimes used for school class- than their neighbours, were able to obtain belonged to the Franconia Conference, es or public meetings . The first building appointments in government and local while Mennonites from Lancaster County actually constructed for religious meetings administration, as were several settlers of were organized in the Lancaster in the Waterloo settlement was the "union" British background who also dominated Conference. The first pioneers in the brick meetinghouse endowed by John Erb the professions of law and medicine. The Lower Block were served by Deacon in 1813 for settlers living just north of his need to relate to higher governments and Jacob Bechtel of the Franconia Preston mills. the legal system put a premium on the Conference, who arrived in 1800. The As new Mennonite families settled the English-language abilities of men who had Tunker minister Abraham Witmer arrived German Company Tract from 1805, those been born English or had received more in 1804 while Joseph Bechtel from belonging to the Lancaster Conference education than most. Immigrants from Montgomery County was ordained a became the most numerous group. By England, Scotland and Ireland took up preacher in 1804, with Martin Baer 1809, the Grand River community consist- land along the eastern and southern edges ordained to help him in 1808. ed of about 70 families, more than half of the township, mainly in the 1830s when At first, Mennonites and Tunkers met from Lancaster County. To serve their the neighbouring Guelph and Dumfries for worship in homes or barns, as they had needs, Benjamin Eby was ordained townships were being opened to settle- done in Pennsylvania, and as the Tunkers preacher in 1809 for the Upper Block in ment." continued to do until the 1870s or later. which his relations by kin or marriage Places where non-Mennonite immi- The Tunkers' distinctive service was the owned much of the land, and Jacob grants clustered became the sites of love feast (or Liebens Mahl), held each Schneider was ordained deacon. Benjamin villages and hamlets. The larger centres spring and fall and attended by so many Eby was confirmed as bishop in 1812 of such as Berlin, Preston, Waterloo and New that it was called a "great meeting." the District Conference (named Waterloo Hope (later renamed Hespeler) were incor- Mennonites, though they did build meet- in 1816). porated as municipalities during the 1850s. inghouses, held the worshipping commu- Benjamin Eby's administration of the Smaller hamlets - such as Bridgeport, nity to be more important than the build- Waterloo District for more than 40 years Lexington, Erbsville, Williamsburg, New ing used for meeting and saw the confer- makes him clearly the dominant individual Aberdeen, Doon, Blair, Pine Bush, Fisher ence as the primary unit rather than the in Waterloo Township's first half-century. Mills and Kossuth - also owe their begin- nings to the clusters of European Germans and other non-Mennonites who were the main agents in village development after Waterloo Township 1835.'3 The Pennsylvania German dialect (also in 1831 called Pennsylvania Dutch), introduced by the founding Mennonites, continued to provide a basis for co-operation in every- day business contacts between Mennonites 8 Bridge and non-Mennonites, and for some social Saw Mill and political activities in the first two gen- Grist Mill erations. It was fairly easily understood by meeting house non-Mennonites who also came from School German principalities along the Rhine, Lots at least partly cultivated including the Roman Catholics of New and settled, 1831 Germany whose distinctive inflections OR Undeveloped lots, 1831 reflected French influences in their native - Roads, 1831 Alsace." F Ford

Fostering Mennonite Identity By the 1830s, there was a basicframework of main roads. The Great Road, with a bridge across the Grand River, connected the clearings around Waterloo and Berlin (and Woolwich Township to the north) with Preston founders of the and points south through Galt to Dundas . Other north- .south roads linked Berlin with Galt via Bleams's Mills Mennonite pioneers, as Corner (later community and along the west bank of the Grand, and ran east of the Grandfrom Preston to Schneiders Waterloo settlement, built the Bloomingdale). Important east-west roads linked lands being opened up in Wilmot Township to the west with in the general sense of shaping basic econ- mills at Waterloo (Erb s Road), Berlin and Glasgow Mills (Snvder's Road), and Means's Mills (Bleam s Road). omy, society and administration, and their Only Mennonites bad built structures that served as meetinghouses and most of these were used also as school- success attracted settlers of other back- houses. Compiled from Gore District assessment rolls, road bylaws and land registry copybooks.

Page 37 A figure of great influence and charisma, he was noted for his spiritual and practical Waterloo Township leadership among the Mennonites. He is Churches and Schools, one of the rare public figures in whom lit- 1861 tle fault has been found. H.W. Peterson, his Lutheran contemporary, noted on first meeting Eby that he "prayed and preached well" and after he had known him for more than 20 years, that Eby was "an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile... sincerely pious, humble, exem- plary, practical and nonsectarian, and emi- nently successful in his day and genera- tion, (and) beloved and respected by all

who knew him." Another obituary tribute Incorporated claimed that Eby was "one of the best, if villages not the very best, preacher of his age, Schoolhouse among the Mennonites ." 2 Mennonite meetinghouse Benjamin Eby had other roles as a t Other church community leader-among his fellow ---° School section boundaries Mennonites and in the larger community. -- Roads He was a landowner and farmer - assessed for 385 acres in GCT2 in 1831, of which By 1861, the township's eight Mennonite meetinghouses had been well-establishedfor at least 20 years, all but 120 were cultivated - though he often Berlin's in rural areas. Other denominations had also put considerable effort into church-building, particularly in thefour incorporated villages of Berlin, Preston, Waterloo and Hespeler. Rural schoolhouses tended to hired others to do the heavy work, as well become thefocalpoints and meeting-places for their local communities. Compiledfrom Tremaine s map, 1861 as a businessman who looked after estates manuscript census, minutes and bylaws. of absentee landowners . He was a school- teacher, encouraging early education and From 1828, the law was changed to school . Cressman's Appointment (in the literacy and teaching a German school allow dissenting sects to hold legal title to hamlet later named Breslau) had a log himself for many years. He used his land and church buildings, and from 1831 meetinghouse from 1837. The Weber con- friendship with H.W. Peterson, and his dissenting ministers were permitted to per- gregation at Strasburg, where services encouragement of the German weekly form marriages. After years of meeting began in 1833, had a meetinghouse by Der Canada Museum and its printing more informally in homes or in "union" 1843 . The Martin Appointment, organized press, to promote both literacy and spiritu- buildings, several Mennonite congrega- in 1824 north of Waterloo on the al growth. Mennonite services and other tions started to establish their own regular Woolwich townline, had a meetinghouse news were announced in the Museum and places of worship or to replace earlier by 1848. The congregation which began Eby had various works printed or reprint- structures with purpose-built meetinghous- west ofWaterloo in 1837 built a meeting- ed, including hymnals, a church history es. Benjamin Eby's congregation in the house on Erb Street named for David Eby and a catechism. locality known as Berlin built a large new in 1851 . As its spiritual leader, Eby nurtured the frame meetinghouse in 1833-34 to serve Bishop Eby was usually able to Mennonite religious community, fostering also as the bishop's base for the Waterloo reconcile opposing factions within the congregations, encouraging the building of District. Its interior was laid out and Mennonites during the 1830s and 1840s, meetinghouses through the whole furnished according to the more formal but these started to splinter into separate Waterloo District, and drawing upon both Franconia tradition with platform, bench churches near the end of his life in 1853. Franconia and Lancaster County traditions and pulpit, though most members came The Reformed Mennonites, influenced in and practices. Though Mennonites from from Lancaster County where a meeting- part by the doctrines of Evangelicals and Lancaster County were accustomed to house interior resembled a home. The United Brethren in the United States, meeting for worship in homes, Bishop Franconia model was followed in most called for a return to the theology and way Eby took steps to obtain land for a build- other Mennonite meetinghouses in the of life of the founders and to distance ing to serve as a meetinghouse close to his district during the next 20 years. themselves from "worldly churches." farm. From 1812 to the mid- l 830s, he By 1837, regularly scheduled preaching Through these disputes, Waterloo shaped Mennonite church government in services were being held in nine localities Mennonites generally followed the Eby's the region in what has been described as a in Waterloo Township, though on average "non-sectarian" and "progressive" lead. "moderate theocracy" - "an admirably each place had a service only once every But he could not prevent local followers conducted community. .. (in which) every- four weeks. Eight meetinghouses were of the "holiness" movement from breaking thing on which the people differed or built by 1851, including Benjamin Eby's away as the New Mennonites - the fore- needed advice was referred to the church in Berlin. Two congregations formed in runner of other breakaway movements for counsel, adjustment or adjudication" the Lower Block - Hagey (started around among the Mennonites in the second half but "nothing was done to interfere with a union meetinghouse in 1824, with a new of the nineteenth century. individual rights or private judgment."" building in 1842), and Wanner (started as From the 1830s, religion and churches By 1825, about a thousand Mennonites in the Samuel Bechtel Appointment in 1829, in Waterloo Township became more com- Waterloo Township were administered as with a new meetinghouse in 1848). The plicated with the arrival of settlers from part of the Waterloo District Conference Schneider Appointment (in the locality more varied backgrounds, especially by Bishop Eby, assisted by five ministers later called Bloomingdale) used a 1826 Roman Catholics and Lutherans. The and six deacons . meetinghouse which also served as a earliest non-Mennonite religious services Page 38 were led by Methodists and the evangelis- on to other settlement frontiers or leaving ciated with Mennonite culture. Extended tic emphasis and form of worship of the few traces in the historical record. and interconnected Mennonite families, as Methodists - and later the Evangelicals Mennonite families suffered misfor- the founding settlers in most rural locali- (also known as German Methodists) and tunes, such as childbirth deaths of women, ties of Waterloo Township, did take the United Brethren - continued to affect accidental work deaths of men, frequent lead in such community efforts. And other denominations throughout the deaths of infants and young children, and Mennonite families continued to take part nineteenth century. Early congregations the scourges of cholera, typhoid and tuber- in co-operative bees, as they also tended to in Waterloo Township usually shared culosis. Cholera epidemics of the 1830s - remain farmers, longer than rural people "union" or "free" meetinghouses in the especially in July-August 1834 - could be from other backgrounds. But bees were various villages, such as in Preston devastating. Funerals were usually organized among non-Mennonite farm from 1834, Berlin from 1836, Bridgeport arranged by neighbours and friends, but folk as well, in the Waterloo region as well from 1848 and Hespeler from 1850. the community was so demoralized in as more generally. Nor should we imagine Early church buildings were erected 1834 that, as Deacon Abraham L. Clemens that such customs and traditions meant by the Lutherans in Preston in 1834, wrote to his brother in Chester County in any perfect state of communal co-opera- the Methodists in Berlin in 1841, the 1836, "the neighbours did not go out to tion and caring for the less fortunate. Catholics in New Germany and assist one another as in any other disease Bishop Benjamin Eby set an example the Swedenborgians in Berlin in 1847, so that there was no funeral held."" for his community in his concern for the the Evangelicals in Waterloo in 1849, and Farming families in which the house- well-being of both Mennonites and non- the Presbyterians at Doon Mills in 1854.1' hold head died as a young or middle-aged Mennonites. His efforts for general Differences between distinct denomina- man often had to give up the farm and German education and literacy have been tional communities hardened after the early were among the first to move on to other mentioned. He also took the initiative in pioneer period . It was an era when most townships or to take jobs in the villages. trying to organize a "Waterloo German people "wholeheartedly professed the tradi- It was more remarkable that, after John C. Society" to care for the "poor, sick, all oth- tional doctrines of Christianity, regularly Snyder died of cholera in 1834 at the age erwise suffering Germans, native or alien, said their prayers, and participated in a vari- of 42, his widow Catharine was able to without denominational distinction." He ety of communal religious activities with a continue running the large farm in supported petitions to help particular non- fervor seldom approached today."" People GCT 128 until her death in 1854. Two of Mennonites, such as John Nahrgang's deaf identified most strongly with their churches, her nine children were young men aged and dumb children in 1836, and was in doctrinally and also socially . In times of 19 and 17 when their father died; they favour of the Common Schools Act of great business risk and uncertainty, people worked on the home farm until they mar- 1843. His belief that "part of the Church's could usually trust their co-religionists. ried and were succeeded by three younger mission was to make the entire social Churches provided opportunities for social sons . As the eldest daughter of Christian order more Christian" seemed dangerously interaction and recreation as well as wor- Shantz, Catharine had eight brothers and Universalist to his fellow ministers. 23 ship, and for the organizing abilities of lead- sisters married and settled in the region Mennonite community leaders may ers with strong personalities. Women and and one unmarried sister. She also sold have been less sensitive to suffering that young people belonged to special groups portions of the farm, reducing it from the resulted from some of their own profitable within the general sphere of the church. 480 acres assessed in 1831 to the 208 activities . Perhaps they were generally less Sunday's sermons were reported in daily acres sold by her executors in 1856.=' forgiving of social problems such as alco- and weekly newspapers and issues of doc- Mennonites suffering misfortune could holism, mental illness or marriage break- trine and ethics mattered enough for call on help from their extended families. down. A few fragments of evidence are churches to split over them. Local congre- But some Mennonites also reached out to suggestive. gations also took pride and competed with meet the needs of people to whom they Local millers such as John Erb, one another in their church buildings. In a were not related. In one recorded example, Abraham Erb and Philip Bleam processed region as complex as Waterloo Township, a group of English families - the surplus grain into hard liquor which was with its distinctive ethnic and religious Woolners, the Hemblings and two families plentiful and cheap. According to David groups, separate denominational churches of Howletts from Suffolk - contracted B. Snyder, grandson of the first Joseph were symbols and focal points of cultural cholera as they passed through Hamilton Schneider of Berlin, "whiskey was a com- identity. in 1832 on their way to the Bridgeport mon thing in those days. My grandfather area. All but one of the parents and several was not a temperance man and had a good Building Community as a Creative children died . The remaining children share of it.. . Like Abraham Weber, Joseph Process of Evolving Co-operation (including six Hemblings aged between Schneider would "give his workmen a two and 14 years) were adopted by glassful when they wanted it." The next Brief historical overviews may mislead Mennonite households in the district and generation - Joseph E. Schneider, Jacob in suggesting that events in the past became assimilated into communities in Shantz and Christian Eby - were "strictly unfolded smoothly and inevitably or, by Waterloo and Woolwich townships." temperance" and would not follow "the focusing on a community's leading fami- Mennonite farm families co-operated custom . ..always to give (whiskey) to the lies, that frontier society was homoge- with one another and with non-Mennonite hired help during harvest and haying neous and prosperous . But pioneer life neighbours in "bees" to accomplish all time."" Like owners of stills such as was crude and brutish for most people, sorts of tasks from logging, ploughing, Samuel Eby in Berlin, the Mennonite especially those without land or extended house-raising or barn-raising, to sheep- millers and large farmers effectively families. For every founding family that shearing, wool-picking, quilting, apple- encouraged consumption of crude alcohol prospered, there were at least ten times as paring, corn-husking and threshing. The by poor Indians and landless labourers. many who failed . We know less about the co-operative bee may now seem to us a Hired helpers at harvest time were plied unfortunates and failures because they comforting symbol of neighbourly and with whisky. Most "bees," in which neigh- dropped out of township society, moving community concern and particularly asso- bours co-operated on all sorts of farming Page 39 tasks and were usually followed by In their first generation in Upper through two centuries published by the "sprees" or country dances, were floated Canada, until the early 1830s, Mennonites Waterloo Historical Society in 1995 on liquor and included keen rivalry for predominated in shaping the basic econo- (and reprinted in 1997). 1 am particular- rewards such as a jug of whisky. my, landscape and services of the ly grateful to Dr E. Reginald Good who Community leaders seemed unconcerned Waterloo settlers' community. Through facilitated my use of the resources of the with the disastrous effects ofliquor on the their role as founding settlers of a solid Mennonite Archives of Ontario and Indians. Perhaps Indian Thomas McGee block of territory, their pioneer culture and Mennonite Historical Society at Conrad explained this in his personal account of economic power continued to dominate Grebel College and also shared his spe- alcoholism in Waterloo Township when he the settlement even after they became out- cial knowledge of Mennonite and abo- noted that "some white men say Indian he numbered by later Lutheran and Catholic riginal history. To save space, detailed got no soul." settlers from the 1830s. The Mennonite bibliographical endnotes are avoided The 1828 trial of Michael Vincent, for bishop, Benjamin Eby, exercised remark- here, except for sources of direct quota- murdering his wife, provides some rare able leadership among both Mennonites tions. Most endnotes refer to relevant insight into Waterloo Township's early and non-Mennonites for about 40 years. sections of Waterloo Township through social structure and problems of poverty But, from the 1830s, the increasing num- two centuries where more detailed doc- and depravity. Vincent, who laboured at bers of non-Mennonites who settled in the umentation is cited. Several research logging and clearing land, was described Waterloo area sought to express their dif- reports publish compilations of primary at the trial as "a miserable person of ferent community identities in separate information . These include Founding intemperate habits, who frequented still- church buildings and activities. families of Waterloo Township, 1800- houses and other places where liquor was The Mennonite presence in Waterloo 1830, with profiles and analytical tables to be had without attending even to the Township was weakened by other factors of 150 families who came to Waterloo wants of his family." There were five during the 1850s. The passing of Bishop Township, mainly from southeastern Vincent children, ranging from the eldest Benjamin Eby in 1853 meant the end of Pennsylvania, and a detailed list of aged 8 or 9 to twins who were about 6 his long era of community leadership township property-holders in 1831 from months old at the time of their mother's among Mennonites and non-Mennonites . the Gore District assessment rolls. death. A former neighbour testified that The economic expansion associated with Families and communities of Waterloo the Vincent cabin was dark and meanly railways and industry stimulated the Township in 1861 reconstitutes town- furnished and that Vincent habitually treat- growth of villages and towns and, by ship society by uniquely linking three ed his wife very cruelly. Detailed press attracting new migrants from other back- sources - the manuscript census, assess- accounts of Vincent's trial depict him as a grounds, diluted the Mennonite strength in ment rolls, and Tremaine's map. villain with no hint of insight by commu- the community . Mennonite families also Grassroots government: biographies of nity leaders into the living conditions of continued to move on to newer settlement Waterloo Township councillors publish- poor landless families on the frontier. But frontiers, in nearby townships and also es biographies and summary tables of the Waterloo miller and distiller Abraham much farther away. In township govern- men elected to the Waterloo Township Erb and his wife Magdalena, who were ment after 1850, Mennonites tended to be council or employed as clerk or treasur- childless, adopted Rachel Vincent, one of less active than their earlier community- er. Waterloo Township schools 1842- the children orphaned by the murder.21 building roles. Rural localities become 1972 is an illustrated survey of educa- A generation later, the will of Mary more divided by their religious differ- tion in the township's 31 schools. Clemens (1820-1867) is rare evidence of ences, as members of various denomina- one woman's effort to help other women tions identified with their separate church- 2. Waterloo Township through two cen- who were from different backgrounds but es, and rural schools took over as focal turies, pp.22-5, 31-42. all in perilous circumstances and not prop- points for general community loyalties. erly supported by husbands or fathers. By 1861, Waterloo Township had 3. Waterloo Township through two cen- Born the second daughter ofAbraham and become a large region with a complex turies, pp.24-5, 404-5. See also Mary Cressman, Mary outlived two hus- mosaic of cultures and communities . Elizabeth Bloomfield et al., Waterloo bands - first the Rev. Christian Eby Mennonites headed fewer than one in four Township cadastre in 1861 : "a system (1821-1859), son of Bishop Benjamin of all township households, 85 per cent of of the most regular irregularity" Eby, and second Jacob M. Clemens them in the rural areas. But they had the (Guelph : University of Guelph, (1813-1866). Mary left $500 each to two largest landholdings and households, the Department of Geography, Occasional women and a girl. Her first beneficiary highest property assessment and the most Papers in Geography No. 21, 1994). was another Mennonite - Nancy Groff solid houses, in contrast to the wealth and Clemens (1822-1897), the daughter of a living conditions of most Lutherans and prosperous miller and distiller, but whose Catholics. Their role as founding 4. S.W. Fletcher, Pennsylvania agriculture Roman and country life, 1640-1840 husband had long since deserted her and settlers and their culture and way of life was incarcerated in the Toronto Asylum. two generations continued to give (Harrisburg, PA: Historical and through Museum Commission, 1950), p.371 . Christina Meuser's legacy was to be paid them a lasting influence on the township's to her "free of the control of her husband" society and economy. who was a Lutheran farmer on a small 5. Waterloo Township through two cen- property. Fanny Beasley was Mary's Notes turies, pp.58-68. Roman Catholic servant aged 14; interest on the legacy was to be used for her 1 . An illustrated version of this essay was 6. Adam Fergusson, Practical notes made education and support until she married presented at the annual meeting of the during a tour in Canada, and a portion or turned 21 .z' Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario of the United States in 1831 on 14 June 1997 . It is based on research (Edinburgh : William Blackwood, 1833), for my book Waterloo Township pp. 127, 281-2. Page 40

7. Quoted in R.L . Jones, History of agricul- Society 19 (1931), at p.257; and his 24. "Reminiscences of David B. ture in Ontario, 1613-1880 (Toronto: eulogy is from the Guelph Advertiser 7 Schneider," Joseph Meyer Snyder University of Toronto Press, 1946), p.53 . July 1853, also quoted in A.E . Byerly, Family Fonds, Hist. Mss. 1 . 168, Series The beginning of things in Wellington 8, Mennonite Archives of Ontario. and Waterloo Counties, with particular Editor J.M. Snyder noted on the origi- 8 . Waterloo Township through two reference to Guelph, Galt and nal typescript of this part of the inter- centuries, pp.69-70. Kitchener (Guelph, 1935), pp.43-44. view "Do not put that in" . "A.E.Y." is quoted by Ezra E. Eby, A 9. Waterloo Township through two biographical history of Waterloo 25 . The testimony of Thomas McGee, centuries, pp.7l -2, 79-80, 83-9. Township and other townships of the reformed alcoholic, is quoted by the county : being a history of the early set- Rev . Peter Jones in the Christian 10. Waterloo Township through two tlers and their descendants, mostly all Guardian of 1829, and reproduced in Waterloo Township through two cen- centuries, pp.75-6, 91-106 . of Pennsylvania Dutch origin : as also much other unpublished historical turies, p.129. information chiefly of a local character 11 . Waterloo Township through two (Berlin 1895-6, updated with indexes 26 . The account in Waterloo Township centuries, pp.50-1 . and commentary by Eldon D. Weber, through two centuries (pp.96-9) is 1971), p.28 . based on detailed press coverage in 12. Waterloo Township through two Canadian Freeman 8 and I I centuries, pp.52-6. 17. A.B. Sherk, "The Pennsylvania September 1838 and Gore Gazette 6 on Robert Germans of Waterloo County, and 13 September 1838, and L. Fraser, "Vincent, Michael," 13. Waterloo Township through two Ontario," Ontario Historical Society, Dictionary of Hamilton Biography centuries, pp.77-90. Papers and Records 7 (1906), p.105 . (1981) : 203-206 . Evidence for Abraham Erb's adoption of Rachel is . virtual disappearance of the 18. Origins of non-Mennonite churches in 14 The in "The will of Abraham Erb," facsim- dialect by the mid-twentieth century the township are surveyed in Waterloo ile in Waterloo Historical Society to efforts to record and practise it. Township through two centuries, led Archives at Kitchener Public Library. The Pennsylvania German Folklore pp. 128-133 . of Ontario, formed in 1951, Society 27 . Mary Clemens' will is reproduced and publishes the Canadian-German 19. John Webster Grant, A profusion of discussed in Waterloo Township spires : religion in nineteenth-century Folklore series of monographs and through two centuries, pp.224-5 . also meets annually for members to Ontario (Toronto, 1988), p.3. practise speaking the dialect. See Kathryn Burridge, Pennsylvania 20. Letter from Deacon Abraham L. German dialect: a localized study Clemens to Jacob Clemens of Chester within a part of Waterloo County, County, Pennsylvania (Mennonite Ontario (Canadian-German Folklore Archives of Ontario, Hist. Mss . 15 .12) . People and Projects v. 11, 1989); Henry Kratz and East Zorra Mennonite Church, near 2l . Mrs O.A. Snyder, "1824 barn boards," Humphrey Milnes, "Kitchener German Tavistock, celebrated its 160th Waterloo Historical Society 62 (1974) : (part 1), a Pennsylvania German Anniversary on the weekend of 31-33; Eby, A biographical history of dialect : phonology," Modern September 20 to 21 . The weekend also early settlers #s 6909, 5905-5973 ; Language Quarterly 14,2 (1953): 184- included a building dedication with its Gore District assessment rolls, 1831 . 198; Henry Kratz and Humphrey celebrations . Milnes, "Kitchener German (part 2), a 22. William Hembling was adopted by Pennsylvania German dialect: phonol- Bethel Mennonite Church, near Elora, Isaac C. Shantz, Jeremiah by Isaac Language Quarterly Anniversary on the ogy," Modern Eby, Lucy by Jacob Shantz, Jacob by celebrated its 50th 274-283 ; Manfred Martin of September 12 to 14. At that 14,3 (1953): Jacob Erb, and Sarah by Deacon weekend Richter, The phonemic system of the Samuel Eby (who also adopted Jacob time a commemorative history, "A Light Pennsylvania German dialect in Woolner Jr) . Jacob and Sarah At The Crossroads," by former pastor Waterloo County, Ontario (University Hembling both died of scarlet fever in Art Byer was available for purchase . ofToronto (Ph.D thesis, Modern 1840 . Eby, A biographical history of Languages, 1969). early settlers #s 3705-3712, #8353. Erie View Mennonite Church, Port Rowan, celebrated their 50th 15. Early Mennonite church organization 23 . "Deutsche Wohlthaetigkeits Anniversary of incorporation this year. is outlined in more detail in Waterloo Gesellschaft," Canada Museum 28 Township through two centuries, March 1840 ; "Organisation der Hidden Acres Camp, near Shakespeare, pp. 120-8. Deutsche Gesellschaft," Canada celebrated its 35th Anniversary this sum- Museum 4 April 1840 ; E. Reginald mer. On August 24 they held a reunion 16. Peterson's early opinion of Benjamin Good, Frontier community to urban for all staff persons from past years. Eby is quoted in A.E. Byerly, "Henry congregation : First Mennonite Church, William Peterson," Waterloo Historical Kitchener, 1813-1988 (1988), p.59 .